Believe it or not I took this a few days ago at a gas station I walk by on the way to the gym. A gas station that has really suffered in terms of patronage in the last month as they are an in a core urban location and their prices are well over $5 a gallon. This is a little planting they have under the price sign.
Boy, I don’t know how much seasonal allergies played a role in this but I was exhausted all week, just dragging my tail behind me but I am feeling a bit better now after taking it a bit easier than normal.
Although I have been busy with League things as always, the focus this week has been more on Walt’s nonprofit. He had a big week. As I have mentioned before Walt sort of fell into running Dialogue Groups for prisoners about 20 years ago, Dialogue Groups like what we do now once a week in person out here in “the real world”.
Those groups morphed into putting on plays, specifically Shakespeare’s plays in prison. Many of the incarcerated folks he met in his groups of 12 were in multiple plays and these experiences have been life altering for many of the guys. There have been a couple of these men that Walt became particularly close with, staying in touch and visiting even though he stopped working in the prisons just before the pandemic.
A number of the actors have gotten out of prison since the movie that was made about this program came out, but last week the fellow Walt and all of us know best, (as he has called into our Dialogue Group from prison and written letters that Walt has shared and gotten to know some of us through our writing that Walt sends into prison monthly), got out after 17 years. It is a big deal in my little world.
I shall call him Mr. Boulder.
Mr. Boulder just had his 50th birthday. I have chatted with him cheerfully very briefly on his calls in the group but on Monday he and Walt were at a coffeeshop across town, and I Zoomed with him and a couple other regulars on Monday. One of his first Zoom calls, our Coffeeshop Philosophers call. The connection was a bit temperamental, but it was a fun conversation.
I asked him about how reading ancient Greek Tragedies in prison might have had particular resonance in terms of both being staged in heightened and dramatic environments. He played Caliban in The Tempest, and this was a life changing experience for him.
A whole group of folks that worked in and around Walt’s program took him out to dinner the day he got out. They also gathered a whole bunch of stuff for him including a new iPhone. There were only flip phones when he went in. He has been placed in a transition hotel downtown while he sets up all his things. He got a bunch of job training certificates in prison, including as a master gardener and dog handler.
We met him in person on Thursday when he came to our Dialogue group. He is quite charming, as you would imagine someone who survived his circumstances would be. His mother was 14 when he was born. He did become a drug addict and as you can tell by his sentence his crimes were not petty. He adores Walt, reveres him almost and they were a happy pair hanging out and getting him settled.
He knows he is incredibly lucky to have this level of support, but he also earned it big time by confronting his demons and putting in the work. He knows that if Walt gets even a whiff of drug use all bets are off. This is going to be so hard for him.
Here was the unusual experience of meeting someone who only knew me through my poetry that he had read in the newsletter. He said some of my poems both touched him and helped him. Wow.
He has a badly damaged shoulder and needs surgery. They are making arrangements for that now. There will be a recovery period from that and then he will need to find work. In the meantime, he intends to keep coming to the Dialogue Group. I think he is going to add a lot to the group. I mean he was a participant for years in the OG groups and other than Walt is more experienced than all the rest of us.
We had a board meeting after the group meeting on Thursday and one of the things we talked about was getting groups like this started in some of the retirement communities around here. Not that I need another project. But it is fun to think about creating an opportunity for folks to experience what is available to us each week.
On a lighter note I love this short advertisement for The Onion, a satirical newspaper that has been reinvigorated over the last few years.
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